EDITORIAL: Grassroots protest got band facility back on campus
Mar. 26—To past, present and future Pride marching band members, the 2019 announcement that money was being raised for a dedicated band practice facility sounded like a dream come true. Renderings used to promote the fundraiser showed a full-size artificial turf field, a storage building for instruments and uniforms and a covered pavilion for practice sessions in the rain. Possibly the best part: It was going to be on campus—located at the former Hawley Field in Evansdale.
And that's how the project was sold to donors for roughly four years: An on-campus practice facility with band-specific amenities. We even published a story in June 2023 about the Hall family (a couple who met as trombone players in the Pride band and whose daughter also went on to be a trombone player for the Pride) making a donation large enough to get their name put on the field. In total, about $1.25 million was raised.
Then in October 2023, it was quietly announced at a Pride band practice that there would not, in fact, be a new band practice facility in Evansdale. Rather, a partnership had been arranged with Mylan Park to build a new artificial turf field out there—five miles away from campus. It was publicly announced the next day at the WVU Alumni Band's Homecoming gathering.
The backlash was immediate but not particularly public—confined largely to direct messages, emails, chatrooms and social media groups dedicated to the Pride of West Virginia or its alumni. Donors repeatedly called the change a "bait-and-switch " and started to question if their dollars could legally be used for something other than what they had been donated for. After all, they had supported an on-campus facility—not a new field (possibly without storage or pavilion) at a private development miles from campus that couldn't be easily reached with public transportation.
Critics didn't need to rock the whole boat. They just needed to make waves in the right places. And it worked.
It took five months for WVU to rectify the situation, but it finally has. On Monday, WVU announced that the band practice facility would be moved back to the Evansdale campus, this time to the Med Fields at the Health Sciences Center. There, it will be closer to the football field (vs. where the band practices now at the Coliseum) and have access to parking and the PRT. WVU's announcement also said the Med Fields site doesn't have the same drainage issues as Hawley Field, nor the same concerns over pedestrian safety (such as crossing Mon Boulevard).
Unfortunately, all the switches and changes have put the project way behind. WVU "broke ground " at Hawley Field in 2021. When the Mylan Park location was announced in 2023, band members were told they'd be practicing on the new field by summer 2024. (WVU emphasized it had not transferred any funds to Mylan Park.) Now the university has "reengaged " the original architect to remake the designs for the newest location at Med Fields. So it will be years yet before the dream of a dedicated band practice facility becomes a reality.
If there's one lesson that we, as the general public, can take from this, it's that carefully executed pressure campaigns can and do work. Instead of just shouting into the metaphorical void of social media, current and former Pride members—and the donors themselves, in particular—networked to create a grassroots movement that then placed pressure on the proper personnel to make this change. When we organize and mobilize, we—as otherwise "ordinary " or "average " people—can make things happens.
